Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Cartoon: The Menstrual Duo

The Parliament Jester Duo , again, found themselves in unprecedented overnight negative stardom by ridiculing the menstrual cycle of an opposition party lady MP.

Rumor has it that this, however, has brought on an unexpected spotlight onto themselves as sanitary product manufactures expressed an unparalleled interest in the Duo being featured in their TV commercial as the ambassadors of their products.

The reason for Umno's existence and success is all about racial politics: ketuanan melayu.

They have nothing to fight for except to get more and more for their race and religion; they are obsessed with dividing the cake in their favour (ten for me, one for you) instead of making the cake bigger.

They do not fight for the nation but their race and religion. All this has been cultivated and imbued into their culture since 1969.

They do not want to talk about corruption as they know many of their kind are corrupt to the core.

I have lived and worked in six foreign countries, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Pakistan and Singapore, and have visited even more countries.

I must say that in all my travels, I have not had the unfortunate experience of racial discrimination. Sure there were cultural barriers, inefficiencies and language difficulties. But never was there a particular country where I was systemically discriminated against.

In Australia, even foreigners, are protected by the equal opportunity commission. Japan, where the locals are known to be xenophobic, have proven to be one of the most hospitable people in the world.

Even in India and Pakistan, there is no single group that is constitutionally and systemically discriminated against. Sure, there are religious fault lines between these two countries due to history. In both countries, I was treated with the same respect for locals, if not more.

The main point that missed is that in spite of all the hype surrounding the 'successes' Malaysia has arguably achieved, it has not integrated its ethnically different races any closer.

In Malaysia, racial discrimination is institutionalised, in Singapore perhaps it is done tacitly. In the public sector in Malaysia, it is no coincidence to note that the majority who hold the top posts are the malays.

Well, without doing much research, I can tell that Singapore's president no less, and its foreign minister are Indians. Even from a cynical point of view, their positions in comparison with our Malaysian situation, are something our minorities here can only dream of.

Of course, we cannot compare our 'Yang Di Pertuan Agong' and other Sultans with the position of president, but a Chinese or Indian Malaysian foreign minister to represent Malaysia?

There is no point in arguing about favouritism and nepotism as they exist everywhere in the world and it is up to the electorate in each country, to decide to what extent they can tolerate them. The crux of the problem here is institutionalised racial discrimination where race takes precedence over merit as official policy.

Financially, instead of lowest tender, our contracts go to the most well-connected politically, with multilevel rent-seekers. The effects are beginning to show in terms of efficient use of resources and productivity.

So far, we are lucky to have Petronas to hide our excesses. What happens when the oil runs out?

Singapore, as a small island with very limited natural resources, has been acknowledged worldwide as a developed nation. Whatever criticisms we may have of it, Singapore's development speaks for itself. Unlike the self-proclaimed developed status by Selangor, which is currently the butt of jokes.

The likes must understand that while many non-malays have left the country due to the discriminatory policies institutionalised by the National Economic Policy (NEP), many of us also understand the importance it played in ensuring equal distribution of wealth in this country. It would be naive to say otherwise.

However, the time has come now for a review on how the policy is applied. I am for one, a strong backer of the ideals that the NEP should be shifted from the current race-centric approach to an approach that uses a means test to justify affirmative action.

Poverty eradication regardless of race is stipulated under the NEP, but has this been implemented? All that is being asked is the promotion of equality to wipe out poverty regardless of race as promised by the NEP.

'Modern development economics' as mentioned empowerment to enable the poor and the underprivileged of all races to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and to move forward. But is this being done equitably today in Malaysia?

With due respect, has to come to Malaysia to see for the reality on the ground and to help us all create a more just and equitable society - a Bangsa Malaysia - that will truly promote greater national unity in our country. We who are here are trying to do our best to achieve this.

A nation can never be built on principles of racism, favouritism and discrimination. With the pervasive racial policies and political intervention of the BN monster in the tertiary institutions, dubious quality will still be a feature of our local institutions.

As a post-independence-born Malaysian, I would like to offer my thoughts on Article 153 of the federal constitution which mentions the special position of the malays. Please note that there is no mention of the words 'special privileges' or 'special rights' in the constitution.

For too long, there has been a lack of understanding of what our forefathers had in mind when they included this clause in our much talked about social contract. To gain a better understanding, let us take a trip back in time to 1957 to actually visualise the scene then.

In a scenario where the immigrant Chinese and Indians were seeking citizenship rights in Malaysia, it is reasonable to presume that they would have had to understand and acknowledge the difficulties faced by the majority malays.

And this is where the meaning of the words 'special position' comes into focus. What did our forefathers mean by the special position of the malays? Did they mean that the malays would enjoy a higher status than all the other races? Did they mean that the malays would have special rights and privileges in perpetuity?

If this is what our forefathers had intended, then our constitution would have mentioned this specifically. However, the constitution or social contract does not say so.

What then, could the words 'special position' mean? It is reasonable to infer that our forefathers were concerned first by the fact that the malays were left behind economically despite being the indigenous majority in the country.

Secondly, they were concerned by the fact that, despite being immigrants, the Chinese and a small segment of the Indian community were relatively much better off.

The clause was therefore more so of an acknowledgment by the non-malays of the disadvantageous economic situation of the malays. The consideration given by the former to the latter when entering into the social contract for citizenship rights was agree to provide some measure of support for the malays to improve their economic standing.

If our forefathers had meant for these preferences to last in perpetuity, then there would not have been a request for a review in 15 years.

When I see the compulsory requirement for non-malay companies to hand over a certain portion of their equity to the malays for no input at all, I am tempted to ask: Is this what our forefathers had in mind? I can go on listing the abuses forever because there are plenty of them.

It is intriguing to hear senior BN and Umno leaders repeatedly asking the people to adhere to the social contract. What contract they are referring to? It cannot be the federal constitution. It is most probably some contract that they have entered into unilaterally without the agreement of the non-malays.

So it seems to be incorrect to firstly equate the words 'special position' with 'special rights and privileges'. Secondly, it also seems incorrect to suggest that the malays have special rights and privileges in perpetuity and therefore, that they have a higher status than everyone else.

The non-malays only agreed to allow them preferences over the others for a finite period of time. It has now been almost 50 years since independent but has such a meaningful review of those preferences taken place at all? Absolutely not.

In fact what has happened is that successive BN governments, dominated by Umno, and especially after the 1969 tragedy, have taken the liberty to very liberally interpret Article 153. This has led to the wholesale abuse of the consideration provided by the non-malays in 1957 for their citizenship rights.

It seems to me that the real social contract of 1957 was torn up long ago by the BN government with the way in which the NEP was implemented from the 1970s onwards.

To me, the real social contract of 1957 has long been dead. I hope the day will come when the people of Malaysia in the true independent spirit will make it live again.

Then perhaps, we would not have to spend hundreds of millions ringgit on nonsensical projects like the National Service to inculcate unity amongst the races.

What I do know is that with so-called special rights, Malaysia lost a lot of talented brains. Those well-off enough go overseas to study and stay there. The rest just make do. Some turn out to be successful and big businessmen. The rest may be on smaller scale but beside business, what can they do?

With many families who had moved to a country that outwardly displays basic rights, it would be wiser the families who are still in Malaysia can really push themselves to get settled in Australia, from been regarded as second class citizens.

With so many who had already established and became citizens of Australia, in all fairness they must pull the stranded families from the clutches of the evil and bigoted malay government.

It is pleasing to the soul and heart to see success stories in this board, and hope many more can get out from the nightmarish and horrible daily events anyone have to go through been in Malaysia, that regards its other races as unimportant and not part of the fabric.

Once again success comes from hard work and determination, and I know everyone has to go through to get the rewards, but in Malaysia there is no such thing for any to be successful from resolution, because it only favors one race and no one else.

No matter how many times you tell your encounter abroad, they would just turn a deaf ear, continuing to practise their racial discriminatory policy.

They are just like robbers. Time after time they'd said if you don't give us what we want, violence is the only answer.

Regretfully, there is no such thing as a free lunch in the real world. Whilst someone has to pay for it in the interim, everyone has to pay for it in the end.

We have the tallest, longest, largest, greatest, grandest, biggest, everything; and now some record breaking events, falling, collapsing, cracking, bursting, break-downing incidents in new buildings. It is only the beginning.

If anybody who thinks that corruption and racial discrimination is not wrong then there will be nothing that is wrong.

This is what actually happening in Umno. They love the two evils:

(i) corruption to enrich themselves (ii) racial discrimination to make them feel good and superior to other races (when they do not know that they still need to be spoon fed and the tongkat) and deceive the poor kampung folks that they are heroes to their race who keep on voting for them.

They are actually robbing the country by making everybody poorer, malays and other races alike. Petrol prices are raised with hundred and one excuse, and tolls are raised without any transparency, and everything has gone up making the poor becoming poorer.

I do not see anything that they can be proud of, and nothing superior about them. Even to rob, they are all given assistance and tongkat to do it by having two set of laws, one for them and one for the ordinary citizens.

I refer to the explanation for the 'reluctant apologies' by these two guys. They say they were defending the BN and its leader.

I say, Pak Lah, I am sure you have better guys to defend you than these two 'mouth leaking' political monkeys.

Now the whole world is laughing at us. How unfair just because I am a Malaysian.

Now, I hope no pea-brained ministers or political monkeys will become so sensitive to tell us not to even mention the word 'bocor' because it symbolises Malaysia.

If BN continues to bring in these type of 'bocor' people into their fold, it shows they don't have much talents in their team. I think this is the beginning of their end.

I would like to air my bit on our two buffoons if I may. It shows the class and the mentality of our elected representatives. The speaker managed to drop the issue like a hot potato after searching for a technicality.

The prime minister conveniently 'hears no evil, sees no evil'. The women's minister is happy with a 'closure'. So tell me what else is new. After all the fuss we are back to square one. A very unique Malaysia solution. God helps us all.

Dear Bung and Said, I will not address you by your titles as they are meant to be honorific titles.

Apparently, sometimes it takes an eye for an eye to realise the mistakes you clowns made. Let me ask you this and after my question, I would like to quickly apologise for it - would you be not be angry if someone posed the same question to your wives?

My question posed is in jest (as defended by Najib) and if it offends you, I would like to perhaps retract the question or quite possibly even apologise for it (without any pressure).

Our sleepy prime minister as usual will not take any actions against these clowns. What can you expect from a corrupt, racist, sexist and poor performing government! Folks, why do we still put up with these clowns?

Time to vote for DAP, PKR and PAS. We have a democracy in place but yet we have failed to exercise it.

It is either Badawi has given his blessings or he is such a lame-duck prime minister and Umno president that even Umno Youth don't care a damn about what he says.

The prime minister should resign and take full responsibility for the clowns in his circus

To blame others and to cast aspersions on the achievements of non-malay entrepreneurs show a lack of responsibility.

Yes, Public Bank is doing well because it is managed professionally. Can the same be said of Bank Bumi or Bank Islam? Who is to blame for this? With all the help that the GLCs have secured, just ponder on what are the achievements of MAS, Telekom and Tenaga!

The government can keep on paying and supporting questionable ventures but without accountability and professionalism, greed is the factor that will undercut everything.

Let the people remember the very words uttered by these malay supremacists when the general elections come around. We all know that with the general elections, the rhetoric switches to one of a more conciliatory voice; i.e. BN component hand-in-hand serving the people, Malaysia unity, working together for a better tomorrow, etc, etc.

This is the voice of a double-headed animal. Unfortunately, this is what gives politics in Malaysia a bad name. Politics is not dirty. It is only when we have politicians who have no principles, no shame and devoid of any integrity in what they say that politics become dirty.

I would strongly urge you to refrain from making unsubstantiated remarks and to comment based on specific topics related to the very blog entry. I mean, I respect your rights to think and post and all, but this blog is not a ranting ground and this is definitely not a space where you can hurl seditious, unfounded remarks against any group of individuals based on ethnicity, religion, beliefs etc..

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